had
occurred. "Oh, Rebecca," she said at last, shivering at the
recollection, "I have seen the most dreadful sight. Either I am going
mad, or I have seen a ghost."

"We thought you were a ghost yourself," said the girl reproachfully.
"What with the screechin' and you lying so white in the middle of the
passage, it was enough to make any one's 'air turn grey.
Mr. Girdlestone, he lifted you up, an' carried you back into your room.
He was cut to the heart, the good gentleman, when he saw what you'd been
after, a-tryin' to give him the slip."

"Oh, this dreadful house will kill me--it will kill me!" Kate moaned.
"I cannot stay in it any longer. What shall I do? Oh, Rebecca,
Rebecca, what shall I do?"

The fresh-coloured maid came across with a simper upon her pretty,
vulgar face, and sat on the side of the bed. "What's the matter, then?"
she asked. "What is it that you have seen?"

"I have seen--oh, Rebecca, it is too dreadful to talk of. I have seen
that poor monk who was killed in the cellars. It was not fancy. I saw
him as plainly as I see you now, with his tall thin figure, and long
loose gown, and the brown cowl drawn over his face."

"God preserve us!" cried Rebecca nervously, glancing over her shoulder.
"It is enough to give one the creeps."

"I pray that I may never see such a sight again. Oh, Rebecca, if you
have the heart of a woman, help me to get away from this place.
They mean that I should never go from it alive. I have read it in my
guardian's eyes. He longs for my death. Do, do tell me what I should
do for the best."

"I'm surprised at you!" the maid said with dignity. "When Mr.
Girdlestone and Mr. Ezra is so good to you, and provides you with a
country-house and every convenience as 'eart could wish, all you can
find to do is to go screamin' about at night, and then talk as if you
was a-goin' to be murdered in the day. I really am surprised.
There's Mr. Girdlestone a-callin.' He'd be shocked, poor gentleman, if
he knew how you was abusin' of him." Rebecca's face assumed an
expression of virtuous indignation as she swept out of the room, but her
black eyes shone with the unholy light of cruelty and revenge.

Left to herself, Kate rose and dressed as well as her weakness would
permit. Her nerves were so shaken that she started at the least sound,
and she could hardly recognize the poor pale face which she saw in the
glass as her own. She had scarcely finished her toilet before her